n a cross-section of 1990 and 1991 observations from the NLSY, in log wage regressions with no controls Neal and Johnson (1996) report that black men earn 24.4 percent less than white men vs. an 18.5 percent shortfall for black women, while Hispanic men earn 11.3 percent less than white men vs. a 2.8 percent (and insignificant) shortfall for Hispanic women. When Neal and Johnson control for AFQT (interpreted as a catch-all for pre-market factors affecting wages), the black-white difference for men falls to -7.2 percent, while black women are estimated to earn 3.5 percent more than white women (an insignificant difference).(2) Thus, even if one believes the Neal and Johnson claim that pre-market factors account for a sizable fraction of racial and ethnic wage differences, the fact that the difference in the black-white wage gap between men and women persists suggests that this difference is a "labor market" rather than a "pre-market" phenomenon. In our view the larger racial and ethnic wage gaps for men than for women are a rather striking set of stylized facts that have largely been ignored by researchers attempting to understand the sources of racial and ethnic wage differences. In this paper we examine more closely the possible sources of the differences in the wage gap, paying particular attention to whether these differences can be accounted for by differences between men and women in the patterns of racial and ethnic segregation.(3) More generally, we believe that research on why racial and ethnic wage gaps differ by sex may ultimately prove useful in helping to understand the sources of these gaps. For example, if one believes that the observed wage differentials are the result of employer or customer discrimination (e.g., Darity and Mason, 1998) then one needs to try to explain why this discrimination is apparently more severe with respect to male employees. In general, if one believes that some other unmeasured characteristic is...
